


faith in love is like blood

by amusewithaview



Series: Said the Hatter with a sigh, "It's always Tumblr time." [9]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dream Magic, F/M, Psychic Bond, Symbolism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 03:03:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11118564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amusewithaview/pseuds/amusewithaview
Summary: The dream was one of her earliest memories.  It was so constant, so uniform, that she truly could not have said when it began.  She didn’t have the dream every night, but she did have it most nights.  The dream never changed, but her reaction on waking did.  Sometimes she woke sobbing and shaking, and could not be soothed.  Sometimes she woke and stared at her ceiling and the chunky plastic stars that decorated it, unmoving until roused by her parents.  Sometimes she tried to go back to sleep, because maybe this time, this time, something would be different -Maybe she could change it, somehow.





	faith in love is like blood

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: *wordless primal screaming at uncooperative brain*

The darkness was utterly absolute whether her eyes were open or shut.  The only sound she could hear, aside from her own breathing, was a constant unidentifiable susurrus.  The sound was sometimes far and almost imperceptible, sometimes scant feet away.  The air she breathed was cool and dry, smelling slightly sour, sandy, and almost spicy.  Something rough and barely above room temperature was wrapped tightly all around her, keeping her from making more than the smallest motions.  Trapped and blind, utterly helpless, she lay there until she woke.

The dream was one of her earliest memories.  It was so constant, so uniform, that she truly could not have said when it began.  She didn’t have the dream every night, but she did have it _most_ nights.  The dream never changed, but her reaction on waking _did_.  Sometimes she woke sobbing and shaking, and could not be soothed.  Sometimes she woke and stared at her ceiling and the chunky plastic stars that decorated it, unmoving until roused by her parents.  Sometimes she tried to go back to sleep, because maybe this time, _this time_ , something would be different - maybe she could change it, somehow.

When Darcy was eight, she went to the zoo for a field trip.  The moment she stepped into the reptile house and took a breath, she froze.  The smell, there was something about it, something…  She was uncharacteristically quiet throughout the entire tour of the reptile house, the last to leave each enclosure, almost left behind but for the observant parental aide who gently shooed her out into the sunlight with the rest of the class.

There was a petting zoo, where goats and rabbits and other small animals could be interacted with in a supervised environment.  One of the zookeepers was holding a snake, a sandy-colored animal with bright eyes.  Seeing Darcy’s intense focus, the zookeeper beckoned her forward, smiling.

“Did you know that snakes are coldblooded creatures?” the zookeeper asked.

Darcy reached out and slowly laid a hand on the snake’s side, feeling the cool, dry scales, the solid musculature beneath, and _recognizing_ both.

“Are you all right, miss?”

She nodded, wordless, and snatched her hand back.  Part of her wanted to run away, to find a sink and scrub away at her hand until the feel and the smell and the memory of scales was gone.  Part of her wanted to wrap both hands around the snake, curl it over her shoulders, rub her fingers over the ridges above its eyes and - and -

That night, for the first time, the dream changed.

Darcy opened her eyes to darkness, felt the coils that bound her, and _shoved_.  For the first time, her surroundings gave way to the force she exerted.  As the dimensions of her lifelong prison shifted, she heard the strange sound that had been her constant companion and realized that the noise was caused by the movement of one ‘wall’ against another.  Blindly, she pushed against her shackles till _something_ moved and her arms were free.  She reached up and pushed and pulled and shoved until there was a space big enough to stand in.  Then she reached out and learned the new shape of her surroundings.  She found more cool, rough walls, but they curved subtly, they _moved_ beneath her fingers.  Darcy tugged and prodded until somehow she had formed the suggestion of a tunnel.  With no better ideas, she decided to angle upwards and see how where that took her.

She woke still climbing.

When next she slept, she found herself back in her black tunnel and continued the journey.  Darcy climbed up and up and ever _up_.  The climb was unending and as uniform as the enforced stillness that had preceded it.  She did not know how many dreams passed in this manner before something changed again: between one moment and the next, as her surroundings gave way before her, there was suddenly _light!_

And it showed her a whole new world.

The ground beneath her swelled and undulated, pushing her up and out.  She took two steps, blinking at the brightness and utterly confused, before she stopped and looking around.  Darcy turned slowly in a circle, then looked down, but everywhere the sight was the same: and endless, uneven landscape made up of the coils of some massive reptile - too gargantuan to be properly called a snake.  The color of its scales ranged from a green so dark it was almost black all the way to a pale tan color, the underbelly, showing through occasionally and breaking up the unrelieved darkness.  Her immediate surroundings were now still, but there was _movement_ everywhere in her field of vision.  The serpent was constantly in motion: shifting this way or that, a loop suddenly thrusting up out of the ground only to slowly sink back down.  Observing in this manner, she was eventually able to see the entirety of one coil: judging by the size of it the serpent could easily swallow her house whole and comfortably digest it.

Darcy sat down and stared.  After a moment she flopped on her back and looked up at the sky.  It was brilliant, studded with all manner of stars.  She tried to find constellations she recognized, at least the Dipper should be easy to find, but the stars were strangers to her.  She sat up and watched the serpent until she woke up.  For seven more days of dreaming, she did nothing but watch the serpent’s coils in their endless dance.

On the eighth day, the dream changed again.


End file.
